To Thine Own Self, Be Food

Huh. Today's topic may prove to be one I won't be able to handle with brevity, comedy, or gravity.  Alas, away we go. Let me take you back to, oh, the year 1996.  I was in college at Iowa State University, studying to be an English teacher, and I was enrolled in an upper-level creative writing class.  The professor would have us read short pieces by professional writers so that we could discuss technique...which we would then practice in our own pieces. I can remember one heated discussion centering around the use of the word 'Oriental'.  A writer had used it to describe someone of Asian descent...and some of my classmates were outraged. "We're not rugs, we're people!" is one comment I distinctly recall among the many. It's an interesting word, really.  Oriental. Is it racist?  Certainly, it doesn't carry the connotations of other, more insulting words other races have been called over the course of human history.  But, Oriental?  F

Say hey, good to be meating you again.  It's been a minute, hasn't it? I have just had a very terrible feeling...that I've come up with a very clever title for today's blog post, but that I'm going to seriously underexecute it in the body.  Like some recent American Olympians or similar. Slice it anyway you like, maybe it's paranoia, maybe I should just get on with it. Life has slowed down here recently.  I'd been adjuncting, and now that the term has ended, I get a six-month break...as there are no classes for me to teach.  This is all good, because it's almost... FOOD TRUCK SEASON! I've been working towards recertification as an ACF Certified Culinarian, and that means all kinds of hours of professional development.  So, I've been reading and studying things like avocados, onions, lamb, food allergies, and cheese.  And while all this bookwork seems tedious, I'm actually glad of it because it's putting me back in the grilled ch